How do you begin the Homeschooing if you are going overseas?

Question

hi, has anyone here homeschooled there kids for a year while going overseas? And do you know how to begin the process ? DO I call my city school board to get approved first? Thanks so much!!

Answer 1

It is hard to answer without more information.

Are you going on vacation during the school year?  If that is the case, then you would be better off asking your counselor about virtual school-doing your work online-so that you could keep up and be prepared and on track when you return to school.  Another option would be to ask to take assignments with you, and/or do a special project for credit because as Hannah said, the experience is going to be a very rewarding educational one (yet, unfortunately the school will want the mundane tasks to have been accomplished).

If the school is unwilling to work with you, then you will need to register as a homeschool student in your state (if your state requires registration) and follow the laws of your state.  You can find the laws for your state at http://www.HSLDA.org  

If you are moving overseas or going to be there for a considerable amount of time, then that might pose a problem.  Depending on where you are going, you might be required to attend school there if you are moving there, or homeschool according to their regulations.  If that is the case, you would follow those regulations and not the ones of your home state.  This would be something that your parents would need to check into in depth, so that you are certain you are doing things properly and are not going to get in trouble anywhere (home or abroad).

Definitely check out http://www.HSLDA.org first.  They also have information on homeschooling internationally, so look into the country you are going to.

I hope this helps, and wish you the best!

Answer 2

Inform the school authorities the reason  about your kid's Homeschooling. Ask them to give the booklist of that class or buy all the books the child need. Teach him all the subjects regulary in the home. If you teach him well he will becomevery intelligent and fast compare to other students of his class.

Answer 3

First off, you do *not* need to 'get approved' in order to homeschool your own kids. No-one needs to get approved in order to homeschool their own kids.

Secondly, how do you begin? You pack up the kids and you go. There doesn't have to be anything more to it than that!

You don't say where you're headed overseas but -- unless you're going somewhere where you don't expect to have access to books, the web, other people, the world-at-large etc, in which case you might want to look at taking a few basics with you -- all you really need is yourselves, your kids, your enthusiasm and your interest in all the novel experiences and surroundings that you'll encounter in the next year.

Your kids are going to be learning first-hand all about the world, another culture, other people, maybe even another language; that is one of the best educations they can ever have.

Remember: homeschooling does *not* have to mean 'doing school at home'(this is why my country's goverment went with the term: 'home-education' and not 'homeschool') and, whilst there is nothing to stop them from taking a few 'school books' with them if that's what you/they decide, doing so is far from mandatory. Additionally, you should bear in mind that you'll have to either physically carry books etc with you when you go or pay the cost of postage, shipping etc (generally not cheap; depending where you're going).

However if you/they want more conventional school-type learning, check out the many online schools, correspondence schools and so on. They're Distance Education as opposed to home-education but it's an option that would provide your kids with more conventional school-type learning. However you will need to have a reliable electricity supply & internet connection or a reliable, accessible and not prohibitively expensive postal service wherever it is you're going before any online school/correspondence school can be seen as a viable option!

Braxowl has it right though: it is *VERY* difficult to give you a proper or thorough answer without knowing more -- where you're going, how old your kids are, what your legal status will be whilst you're living overseas, what type of visa you'll be travelling on etc etc. For instance: will you be going purely as visitors? Or are you planning on working? Or applying for residency? All those things will affect your legal status whilst overseas -- and therefore whether or not you ought to be following the country's own homeschooling guidelines or whether you'll be educating your kids in a kind-of legal 'no man's land'.

One other thought: if you're going overseas because one or other parent works in your country's diplomatic service and you are going to be living inside a diplomatic compound, then you should be following the guidelines as they apply to home-ed in your home country. Places such as diplomatic compounds, whilst geographically being overseas, are legally a part of the country that occupies them.

Answer 4

I just asked almost the exact same question LOL!  I hope we both get good answers soon!

Answer 5

There are some online charter schools that anyone can use as long as you have an internet connection. K12 International Academy , Progress Academy, Florida Virtual Schools etc.